Success Life Archives | Page 2 of 2

Book Launch Basics

December 3, 2021/0 Comments/in Marketing Your Business, Success Life

Kudos to you for finishing your book! It’s a huge effort that is to be commended for sure, but don’t celebrate too much. There’s still work to be done. Here’s the thing about publishing: sales don’t just happen. You have to market your masterpiece and that starts with a book launch.

Start Early

The biggest mistake you can make when coordinating your book launch is waiting too long. The day you send your book to print is too late. The best book launch starts weeks or even months before your book hits the shelves.

Think about it. There are dozens of moving parts to coordinate and leaving them until the last minute is a recipe for disaster. Instead, give you and your team plenty of time and you’ll enjoy a profitable, stress-free launch.

Outsource

Now is not the time to DIY. You have enough on your plate just trying to get the book ready for publication, so let someone else handle the details. If you already have a project manager, this is a great time to put them to work. If you have a VA who can step into the role and help coordinate the rest of the team, that’s workable as well. But either way, start putting your task list together and get them scheduled:

Landing page creation: consider giving away the first chapter of your book before publication to build a buzz (and your mailing list).
Social media outreach: teasers are perfect for getting the word out about your upcoming book. Don’t be afraid to “leak” your book cover, create social graphics with quotes, and share your enthusiasm with your tribe.
Reviewer outreach: getting reviews on the listing is critical to your book’s success, so now is the time to reach out to beta readers with a review copy, so they have time to read it before you go live.
Interview scheduling: one of the best ways to get the word out about your upcoming book is to make the rounds of podcasts, blogs, and live events.
Blog and email: don’t neglect your own audience leading up to launch day. Be sure to let them know about your upcoming book by blogging about it and keeping them updated on progress through email.

Steady Radiance Design can help with a lot of these. Reach out to us to see how we can help with getting the word out about your new book!

Get Help Building Incentives from Steady Radiance Design

Have Fun

This is by far the most important thing you can do during your book launch. Enthusiasm is contagious, and the more fun you’re having with it, the better the buzz you’ll build. Plan to step outside your comfort zone a bit too, to really get others talking.

Facebook events: if ever there were a good reason to schedule a Facebook event, a book launch is it. Consider setting up a live video feed the day your book launches so you can share your thoughts with your fans.
Book trailers: another video that’s well worth the effort is a book trailer. Just like a movie trailer, these short commercial style videos are great for getting the word out about your book.
Host a book signing: if you live in or near a large city, or already have a large following, consider hosting a live event. A reading, some hors d’oeuvres, and a few signed books is all it takes, and your fans will love it.

Steady Radiance Design can help with some of these too!

Of course, you don’t have to go to the trouble of launching your book formally at all. But if you do, you’ll enjoy a much better start to your new publishing career. Not only that, but done right, book launches are great fun. That’s something you certainly deserve after all your work.

Image from Pexels

4 Ways to Improve Your Leadership Skills

October 1, 2021/0 Comments/in Building Your Business, Success Life

When most of us hear the word leadership, we usually think of political officials, CEOs, military commanders, or even athletes. While it’s true that you need good leadership skills to excel at these occupations, leadership is a valuable skill that everyone from any vocation or background can use for their benefit and the benefit of others.

Effective leadership doesn’t come naturally for most of us. Luckily, there are several methods that you can use to build and refine your leadership skills.

Discover the leader in you! Try these techniques to boost your leadership skills:

Strive for excellence. Part of being a successful leader is your ability to set the bar for others. You can be a good role model by constantly seeking ways to improve yourself and aspire to excellence.
- A hallmark of leadership is excellence. Work on honing your existing skills and developing new ones.

Focus on your vision and set goals. Consider what you want to accomplish in different areas of your life. Set goals that will help you to achieve your vision.
- Set goals where you are able to periodically measure your performance and progress.
- Break up larger goals into smaller ones so that you can celebrate your successes and maintain your motivation.
- Learn to identify and use all of your resources in the pursuit of your goals. When making plans to reach your goal, always work with the resources you have in your current circumstances, rather than developing plans based on resources and circumstances that you wish were a reality.
- Be willing to refine your plans and ultimate goals based on your progress as well as your dreams.

Develop your people skills. Leaders are known for their ability to inspire others to work towards a common goal. To be successful at inspiring others to work with you, it’s important to develop your people skills and emotional intelligence.
- Learn how to listen. Doing so helps to establish a connection and build camaraderie and trust, so others are more likely to follow your lead and help you.
- Help others to be their best. Part of being a good leader is motivating others towards positive change.
- Seek input from others when discussing goals and plans to reach your objectives. Give others a stake in the results by seeking their opinion. They’ll be more motivated to help you.

Be passionate and maintain a positive attitude. Most of us take cues from others in social situations, so you can teach others to have a positive attitude and to be passionate in their efforts by doing so yourself.
- Maintaining an upbeat attitude and giving your best effort help to energize the entire team so everyone is able to accomplish more, regardless of the circumstances.

Taking the time to develop your leadership skills can radically increase the amount of success that you experience in all areas of your life. These tips can help you to hone your leadership skills so that you can achieve your goals and enjoy a more satisfying life.

How to Get Over Your Live Video Jitters

September 17, 2021/0 Comments/in Building Your Business, Self-Care for Entrepreneurs, Success Life

It’s a rare person who loves public speaking or appearing on video. If that’s you, you can stop reading right now. But if you’re among the (much larger) crowd who suffers sweaty palms, racing heart, and uncontrolled butterflies, and you’re letting these get in the way of your video marketing dreams, then read on.

Here’s the thing: We all get nervous. Even those who love public speaking and appear so natural on live video are often shaking on the inside. They’ve just found a way to deal with their fear and make it work for them.

Practice Makes Perfect

The first time you do anything, you’re likely to be nervous, especially if it’s a public performance. The only way to lessen the fear is to do it. And do it again. And again. And again.

That means not only should you practice your topic, webinar, or speech ahead of time, but you should also take to the stage – whether virtual or real – as often as you possibly can. Don’t pass up any opportunity to appear on live video, on podcasts, in a webinar, or on the stage.

And if you need a place to practice in a judgment-free zone, consider joining a group such as Toastmasters, where you can work to reduce your nervousness in front of a live audience.

No Pressure

Sometimes, the worst judgment comes from our own heads. Don’t let that voice lie to you. There really is no need to pressure yourself to perform or to be perfect, and there’s certainly no need to berate yourself for any small mistakes you make.

Instead, acknowledge that no one is perfect, that you’re doing your best, and that you’re improving with each and every live video or event – because you almost certainly are! Be nice to yourself, and recognize that there really is no need for perfection.

Just Be Yourself

Here’s the biggest hurdle we can face: trying to be someone we are not. We see professional news anchors, actors, and others who appear poised and polished on every video clip, and we think that’s how we have to appear.

That’s simply not true. Your audience wants to get to know you better, not the person you think you should be. So be your fun-loving, mistake-making, self-forgiving self. It will resonate so much better with your audience that everything else will be easier as a result.

Online Apps That Hurt Your Productivity

August 20, 2021/0 Comments/in Building Your Business, Productivity, Success Life

Apps are fun and cool, which is why they’re so popular. And while many apps are useful and time time-savers, many others do a lot to lower your productivity.

If you feel like you don’t have enough time in the day already, it doesn’t make sense to spend time on things that have minimal value.

Turn the silly things off. Focus on your work and when you take a short, timed break, you can play for a few minutes.

Here are a few such online apps that probably hurt more than they help:

Twitter. You don’t need to know what your favorite celebrity is up to. Surely, it’s more important to focus on your own life! Is it critical that you be informed (while you’re working) that your friend from high school just left the movies to go shopping for a new pair of shoes? Come on, now. Really?
Any kind of messaging app. Messenger apps just make it easy for people to interrupt what you’re doing. You jump at the chance to take a little break and, before you know it, 30+ minutes have passed. Don’t log into these things unless you’re done working for the day. Even at night, it would be better to just get on the phone and talk like a real person.
Email notifications. Email can be a great tool but it can also be a huge waste of time. Check your email in the morning and at night. The last thing 99% of the population needs is an email notification every 5 minutes because then you just know that you have to check it. It will drive you nuts until you finally cave and see what’s going on.
- Many highly efficient and successful people make it a point to check their email no more than twice a day. Most only check it once a day. Some only check it a couple of times a week. They have better things to do, and you could, too, with such a system.

Blogs. Good blogs are highly interesting and informative. Give yourself a time limit or limit yourself to a set number of blogs. Life is all about prioritizing, so set some priorities.
Facebook. It can be a great way to keep in touch, but it’s much like Twitter: 99% of the stuff you’re exposed to is fluff. Viewing pictures of someone’s trip to Africa is interesting. Reading that your friend is sitting on the deck drinking margaritas is of questionable value. You have a life to live, do you really have time for this stuff?
- Again, set some limits and strive to stay within them. Also, consider limiting the number of ‘friends’ that you have.

Social bookmarking sites. Websites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit, and other bookmarking sites are great tools for finding blogs, articles, and sites related to your interests. Just be careful how much time you’re spending on them. It’s easy to be fed 1,000 interesting sites every day. It’s also easy to burn a lot of time on them. Be careful.

Online apps can be wonderful if they’re used wisely. Don’t spend a lot of time on what are essentially frivolous things. Life is short! Focus on what you want to get done each day and avoid letting such apps steal away your time that you could be using to increase your productivity and make your dreams come true.

Want more? Here are more strategies to increase your productivity.

Fear-Based Decisions Are Bad for Business (and Life)

August 6, 2021/0 Comments/in Building Your Business, Success Life

At one point, every business owner will find themselves in a troubling situation. Revenue is down. New clients are scarce. Profits are falling, and a peek at the financials is enough to bring on intense fear and even a full-fledged anxiety attack.

Unless you have a million-dollar nest egg or trust fund waiting in the wings, chances are you’ve experienced that sinking feeling of a business that’s trending downward, too. But how you handle it can mean the difference between continued success and business-killing burnout.

Here’s where a lot of business owners get it wrong. They start to worry about money, and that worry leads to poor decisions that ultimately have a negative impact not just on finances, but—maybe more importantly—on morale, too. Maybe you know what I’m talking about. Here are two things you should avoid in this situation and what to do instead.

You Take On The Wrong Client

When business is down, it can be tough to keep your ideal client avatar in mind. Instead, you jump at the chance to work with anyone who comes along. The trouble with this scenario is you can find yourself with a roster full of clients who:

Aren’t willing or able to do the work required
Spend all their time telling you why your ideas and advice won’t work
Drain your energy and make you dread your office

Instead, keep doing what you know how to do – marketing, advertising, networking. Whatever you do to bring in new clients, keep doing that. Don’t stretch yourself so thin by taking on too many clients to try to make up for the loss you’re currently feeling. The abundance will return, you just need to keep going! If you have trouble believing that, check out The Abundance Journal for Wildly Creative Entrepreneurs. It can help get your mind back on track and bring in the prosperity that’s waiting for you!

You Stop Creating

And who can blame you? With profits down, you have to pull back. You can’t afford to spend time and money creating new programs, so you recycle the ones you’ve already produced. Your fearful self is saying, “Just re-release this same product again. It doesn’t matter that I don’t have to have new sales copy written or record new videos.” While this might help bring in a bit of cash short-term, it won’t do anything for your reputation or your self-esteem.

Instead, repurpose with positive intent. For example, you can turn your ebook into a group coaching course. Just be sure you do it the right way with new sales copy and whatever new items you need to make it into a successful coaching course.

A fear-based mindset can cause you to make rash decisions and rush into things. Do your best to take your time and think about your situation calmly and rationally so you can pull yourself out of your current position and get back on track to building a successful business!

How to Live Your Life with Intense Purpose

July 23, 2021/0 Comments/in Success Life

Wandering around aimlessly from day to day provides absolutely no benefit to you or those around you. An unspecified purpose leaves you frustrated and lacking direction with everything you do. If you don’t already know your purpose in life, take some time to reflect on what it may be (see below). Then make sure everything you do lines up with this purpose.

Discover Your Purpose

In order to find your purpose, look at the things you love to do and what makes you tick. The trick is to figure out where you draw your internal energy from and where your gifts and talents are best used.

What do you do to recharge your batteries? What do you absolutely love to do? Take a little time to figure this out and then focus on it. If you need more help discovering your purpose, our course Brain Training for Success can help!

Choose Activities That Fulfill Your Purpose

Once you identify your purpose, look at the things you do on a day-to-day basis. Do these activities add to your purpose or take away from it? Everything you say, do, think and act on should complement your purpose and help fulfill you. If it isn’t doing this, either drop the activity or delegate it to someone else.

An example of a purpose you might have is to provide a healthy and comfortable life for your partner and children. What types of activities do you think fall in line with this purpose? Let’s look at a few and see how they line up with your personal life purpose.

Cooking. Cooking your own food allows you to be the top chef. You get to choose the ingredients in your food, rather than relying on some other person or company. You can take out the salt, add flavor with herbs and spices, and reduce your portions to create something that fits within your family’s healthy lifestyle. Plus you’re saving money, which can be used for your children’s education or a family retreat.
Cleaning. Keeping a clean house fulfills both the healthy and comfortable parts of your purpose. By doing things like dusting, washing dishes, and taking out the garbage, you’re staying healthy. Removing the clutter creates a more comfortable environment.
Exercise. Exercising, along with activities like yoga and meditation, helps keep your mind and body healthy and comfortable. These activities keep your weight down and make you feel better inside and out, which will also keep you strong for your family.

As you can see, each one of these activities adds to your purpose. Things that distract you from your purpose might include eating out excessively, living beyond your means, and even sitting around doing nothing all day. Negative or unfulfilling activities can be exchanged for the ones that supercharge both you and your life purpose.

Live With Purpose at Work, Too

For your professional purpose, you might have a passion to plan social events for you and your coworkers. You can accomplish this by volunteering for your company’s activities committee or being on a board that plans events and meetings. You can also start your own activity group and get things together for employee birthday parties in the office.

You can see how these ideas and actions fall directly in line with your passion and purpose. Obviously, you still have to get your job done, but you can certainly use your free time to fulfill your purpose.

Once you’ve identified your purpose, I challenge you to live your life with intensity toward that purpose. Do everything you can to focus on your calling with the things you say, think and do. If it isn’t necessary or doesn’t align with your goals, let it go.

Living your life with intense purpose renews your passion for life and enables you to be the best you can be. It strengthens your self-confidence and, best of all, brings self-fulfillment. Find your purpose today, and give it all you’ve got!

The Two Most Effective Ways to Increase Your Productivity

July 9, 2021/0 Comments/in Building Your Business, Productivity, Success Life

For some people – perhaps even for you – increasing productivity is akin to finding the Holy Grail. Why has upping productivity taken on such mythical proportions?

Simply put, increasing productivity means increasing earning potential. If you own a business where you provide any type of service, taking steps to increase your ability to deliver the service in less time will allow you to take on more clients and earn more money.

Likewise, if you sell a product, finding a way to make or deliver that product faster will enable you to serve more customers, once again, making more money.

When you find ways to do the same thing in less time, you’re being more efficient. Efficiency and productivity go hand in hand.

Undoubtedly, the more efficient you can make the process of completing any task, the more productive you’ll be.

Use these strategies to increase your efficiency so you can be more productive:

Create a prioritized schedule for your work. Whether using a post-it note, a Microsoft Word file, or an online task management tool (such as Toodledo or Remember the Milk), almost everyone has some type of system for creating and editing the classic “to-do” list. These lists are sometimes a hodgepodge of ideas and tasks that need to be completed in the future and not-so-distant future.
There is nothing wrong with maintaining a to-do list, as it can make the difference between getting stuff done and going crazy trying to keep everything organized in your head. Still, the typical to-do list leaves much to be desired. Unlike a conventional to-do list, having a prioritized schedule takes things a step further, allowing you to increase efficiency and productivity. This is because prioritizing all of the tasks that you have in front of you while keeping track of a longer-term picture of your schedule for weeks to come, will allow you to really figure out what is the most important thing that needs to be done right now.

If you are creating a prioritized schedule and realize that you have a best friend’s wedding in two months, you’ll be able to bump getting a dress or tux way down the list, while still making sure to place it somewhere on your schedule. A prioritized schedule essentially puts things into perspective, allowing you to figure out what truly needs to get done this very moment and focus on that.

Seek out and accept specialized help. Whether you run your own business or are a stay-at-home parent, it will save you lots of time and energy at the start if you’re open to collaborating with others.
Bill Gates may be quite capable of developing all of the new programs needed to advance Microsoft as a company while working with prospective clients in addition to handling customer service and PR. However, Mr. Gates and most other successful individuals would never be caught doing this. No matter how much you can do by yourself, your resources are finitely limited by one single factor that trumps all others… time. So, rather than spend 8 hours a day answering phone calls, working on new products, shopping for groceries, and cutting your own hair, it may be a more productive use of your time to zero in on the one or two things that give you the most results for the amount of energy that you put into them. For example, if developing a new product will eventually double the size of your business by being able to cater to an additional market or consumer demographic, then this is time well spent.

Paying someone else to answer phones, freeing up your time to be devoted towards projects that will give you more returns for your time invested is the sure sign of a future Fortune 500 executive at work. (Check out this article from our parent company on how to find and Combining this strategy with using a prioritized schedule will enable you to focus on what’s most important for you and get it done. Your productivity will soar!

Finding Your Inner Strength When the Going Gets Tough

June 11, 2021/0 Comments/in Self-Care for Entrepreneurs, Success Life

Experiencing challenging phases in life can really test your mettle. When you encounter those bumps in the road, how do you react? Are you able to deal effectively with these challenges without going to pieces? Could you use some help in finding your inner strength?

Try these ideas to tap into your personal reserves whenever the going gets tough:

Take some time to ponder the present dilemma. What do you see as the real issue? Are you making a mountain out of a mole-hill? How can you focus your efforts on the current event that’s troubling you?
Acknowledge your fears about the vexing situation. Before you can show resilience to move forward, it’s important to recognize any fears that have a bearing on your current circumstances. Ignoring them will only serve to thwart you from confronting the issue.
Consider every option. Writing down your options for overcoming your challenge will help you see the situation from all angles.

Brainstorming as many solutions as you can is a great start to finding a workable option.
Be open-minded. Sometimes you have to remind yourself to not automatically screen out possible solutions to a sticky wicket. Every viable possibility should be considered.
Considering every possible solution indicates you have the resilience to succeed.

Approach the challenge with positivity. It may sound over-simplified, but you can either approach a stumbling block thinking, “I don’t think I’m going to survive it” or “I’m going to do my best and make my way through this situation.” Taking a positive outlook will compel you to move forward through the crisis. Be optimistic!
Avoid looking too far ahead. Focus on what’s going on in this moment. Sometimes, it helps to make it through 1 hour at a time.

Concentrate your energy on what you can do in the here and now.

Draw from your religious faith to help you through. Spirituality regularly assists millions of people to live consistently healthy, happy lives. Perhaps finding faith would bring you the inner strength you desire.
Seek emotional support from those you love. Any troubling event is easier to navigate through when you feel the love and support from someone close to you. Bolster your “resilience reserves” by getting a little help from your friends and family members.

Although it might be difficult for you to reach out and say, “I’m struggling,” look at it this way: your loved ones will feel better if you give them opportunities to be there for you. Accept the loving and supportive care that your loved ones are so willing to provide. You’ll likely have a chance in the future to reciprocate.

Soothe your spirit. What calms you down, makes you feel peace, and brings you simple joy? Take time to participate in your favorite activities to soothe your frayed emotions.

Taking a walk in the woods, swimming a few laps at the pool, or doing a handcraft or hobby at home can be some of the most self-soothing things you can do when you’re experiencing a tricky life phase.

Embrace your strength. Remember that your strength has pulled you through many crises in the past. Have confidence that it can continue to bolster you through many more.

Life can be exhilarating, interesting, and challenging. When you encounter a block in your path, allow your resilience to shine through. These strategies can help you draw on your inner strength to live a meaningful, enriched existence, no matter what type of challenge you encounter.